Kenda Flintridge Pro 650b x 45 Gravel Tire Review
Words and Photos by Eric Meier
I came to Gravel in 2019 after many years of Road riding. My first event was the MidSouth. When I told people that I was doing the event, the first question wasn’t about my bike, gearing or fueling, it was about my tire selection. Admittedly, I was very confused about the importance they were placing on tire selection. That year I put more thought into my socks (I changed them at mile 50) than my tires (I rode what the bike came with). As a roadie, I would put a fresh set of tires on in the spring and if all went well I’d put a fresh set of the same tires the following spring. Coming up on two years with my Breadwinner G-Road, I have accumulated six sets of tires! Today we’re going to talk about the seventh set.
Kenda is not a tire company I have bought from before or even thought about. Maybe I’m too easily enticed by the marketing of certain brands, and from my collection you can make your own judgements. Nevertheless, here we are with the Kenda Flintridge Pro. Kenda has been making bicycle tires since 1962 and now makes tires for everything from wheelchairs, your lawn mower, to ATVs, cars, trucks, and more. In the bicycle range, if it has two wheels they make a tire for it. In our world of Gravel they have three: the Alluvium, Booster, and what we have here, the Flintridge. Each Kenda adventure tire is available in a variety of sizes, casings and colors, but my test pair happens to be the only one Kenda currently offers in 650b with a tan sidewall.
Maybe it’s the tire, or maybe it’s all the recent experience, but the Flintridge mounted the easiest of any tire I’ve wrestled onto my Astral Wanderlust 650b rims. The rubber around the bead does feel less “sticky” than some other tires and was easily mounted to the rim with my hands. A quick blast from the compressor and four ounces of Orange Seal Endurance and we’re good to go. In the several hundred miles I put on them, the Flintridge had no punctures and held air from the start. They do have more rubber on the sidewall than my baseline tires and this seems to have helped with holding air.
Thanks to my employer’s generous PTO policy I was able to take a week off and put the Flintridge through their paces on my local gravel including some MidSouth roads with Bobby Wintle and the Ozark mountains of southeastern Oklahoma.
First off, I love the way they look. Kenda calls the sidewall color coffee, and I really like coffee. The look is purposeful yet classy, and darker than other tan sidewalls I’ve ridden. I ran the pressures at the low end of Kenda’s recommendation of 30 psi, but never ventured below it. Out the door most of us are on pavement until we get to gravel and I am no different. The Flintridge ran like a champ on pavement and were never buzzy or felt squishy in turns. On my wheels, running higher than 30psi felt excessively hard and completely out of character for a 650b setup.
So we get to the gravel... where this tire shows its very specific skill-set. In their description of the Flintridge, Kenda describes the tire as “equally at home on pavement and hard pack.” On such terrain this tire is the one to have. At 45mm this is a narrower tire than most 650b tires I’ve run, thus demanding a slightly higher pressure than I’m used to. The results are great on smoother surfaces, but show it a loose corner and things become a bit sketchy. On the roads around the MidSouth tire ruts are common, and to get out of the rut it helps to have a tire with the tread coming lower on the sidewall and a lower pressure to pull you out of the rut. The Flintridge tread needs to come down a little lower to help with that. As is, it can’t pull you out of that rut. The forest roads in the Ozarks are riddled with fist sized rocks and impossibly steep climbs. The Flintridge was good on the climbs, and had no problem maintaining grip while ascending. Results on descents were less impressive, as on one steep technical descent I found myself wanting a 48mm wide tire at 25psi (or lower). The Flintridge with a narrower profile and higher psi were less forgiving and tended to sap my confidence.
So where does this tire fit in the growing number of tires I have? For a 650b setup I’m having difficulty finding a place for them. The attraction of running a higher volume tire is being able to run lower pressures. I’m running the Flintridges at their lowest, but that is the max psi for the majority of tires I currently have. My recommendation for Kenda is to widen the tire to 47, offer a less robust sidewall and bring the edges of the tread around the tire. This would better suit the 650b ethos and extend the versatility of this tire. As is, it’s a niche within a niche tire. If you ride straight smooth gravel roads on a 650b bike you’re golden!
The Flintridge Pro with GCT casing is available in 700c and 650b sizing, with black or coffee sidewalls for $65.
Learn more at Kenda Tire
